Gun Safety

Question: "My husband is a hunter and keeps guns in the house. How do I keep my into-everything son safe?"

You’re right to be concerned. More than a third of all American households have guns, giving nearly nine million kids and teens access to firearms, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In fact, a child dies from a gunshot wound every two hours, either from an unintentional injury, murder, or suicide, and experts believe even more children are seriously injured or disabled. Perhaps the most frightening statistic of all: More than a third of all accidental shootings of children take place in their own home or in the home of a friend or relative.

These numbers prove that guns and children are a dangerous mix. In fact, the AAP (and many child-safety groups) strongly urge parents to keep guns out of the home completely. Even a child as young as three can pull a trigger, and given that most kids are incurably curious and impulsive, they’re simply not able to anticipate or understand the dangers of such a seemingly small act. And for older kids, guns can represent irresistible power, which may be why roughly 135,000 of them bring one to school every day either in an effort to look tough or protect themselves from other sources of violence.

Clearly, there’s a very good case for keeping guns out of the house — but then what are you supposed to do when hunting is an important part of your family life? Give up a part of your culture and a tradition that may have been passed down for generations? Not necessarily. But — and this is a very big but — you do have to implement smart gun-safety strategies and stick with them, especially if your guns can’t be stored securely outside the home.

Follow these steps to keep your child away from guns and help him understand what guns can do:

Store guns unloaded in an inaccessible and locked location. Ammunition should be locked in a different place. If you choose locks with keys, be sure those keys are kept separately from the rest of your keys, in an area where your kids can’t find them. (These basic rules may seem like no-brainers, but research shows that many gun-owning homes don’t follow them: About a third keep guns loaded, about half keep guns unlocked, and more than one in five do both.)

Every gun should have a trigger lock installed to prevent accidental discharge.

When cleaning a gun, never leave it unattended, not even for a minute.

Teach your children these four rules so they know what to do if despite your best efforts they do find a gun unattended in your home (or at a friend’s or relative’s): Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the room immediately. Tell an adult. Repeat these rules early and often.

Have regular conversations about the violence your kids may see on TV, in movies, or in video games, and explain how that’s different from what happens in real life. Keeping those lines of communication open and honest is one of the best ways to keep kids safe (no matter what the issue).

Written by Heidi Murkoff

Heidi Murkoff is the creator of the world’s best-selling pregnancy and parenting series, What to Expect, that began with What to Expect When You’re Expecting. She is also the creator of WhatToExpect.com and founder of the What to Expect Foundation.